Raikkonen ready

By James Mossop

12:01AM GMT 28 Dec 2003

It takes a special mentality to be able to snooze in those noisy, bustling, anxious moments preceding a Formula one race, especially when you are one of the drivers. Kimi Raikkonen has the 40-winks habit that defies his breath-taking brilliance once he steps into the McLaren-Mercedes.

There is also a profound belief among the teams that when Grand Prix racing emerges from winter hibernation and heads for Australia in March that Raikkonen could be the man to puncture the invincibility of six-times champion Michael Schumacher.

It almost happened last year when Schumacher went to the last race in Japan requiring one point to take the championship and Raikkonen needing to win his 50th race to spike him. Schumacher nursed his car sufficiently well to collect as Rubens Barrichello won.

This year McLaren will race their new car, which carries an improved Mercedes engine and huge measures of expectancy. But more than the machinery sets Raikkonen apart. He comes with the heritage of great Finnish F1 drivers, Keke Rosberg and Mika Hakkinen among them.

You ask the McLaren men, from team boss Ron Dennis down, why their 24-year-old driver is so quick and they struggle to provide an adequate answer. He's just got the knack, the fearlessness of youth and the ability, matching Schumacher, of hitting the brakes late and the accelerator early. Split seconds count in F1 and that is where they score.

Last year Raikkonen outpointed his senior colleague, David Coulthard, and from 2005 he will have a stiff challenge from McLaren's recruit, Juan Pablo Montoya, whose daring is legendary. His arrival from BMW-Williams, though, will not faze the Finn.

He fears no one, Schumacher and all, and when you can persuade him to sit down and talk his confidence comes in a near whisper, but as he told me earlier this year: "There is no reason why we cannot beat Ferrari if everything is all right with the new car."

The boffins at McLaren and Mercedes have made that their winter's work. When testing resumes early next year they may remain coy about its potential, which is all part of the pre-season mystique.